The password was “Keep your head down, —— boy,” and the clew was as follows:
“Search where affection ceases,
By soft and —— sands.
The digit it increases,
On its head it stands.”
“After all,” Tish said, “we have tried to help Aggie and failed. If that thing made sense I would go on and locate the treasure. But it doesn’t. A digit is a finger, and how can it stand on its head?”
“A digit is a number too.”
“So I was about to observe,” said Tish. “If you wouldn’t always break in on my train of thought, I’d get somewhere. And six upside down is nine, so it’s six we’re after. Six what? Six is half a dozen. Half a dozen eggs; half a dozen rolls; half a dozen children. Who has half a dozen children? That’s it, probably. I’m sure affection would cease with six children.”
“Somebody along the water front. It says: ‘By soft and something-or-other sands.’”
We pondered the matter for some time in a narrow lane near the country club, but without result; and might have been there yet had not the sudden passing of a car which sounded like the Smith boys’ flivver toward the country club gate stimulated Tish’s imagination.